1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical bandages.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A fundamental concept in the healing of skin, promoting skin health, and healing tissue injuries is the delivery of adequate oxygenation, carbon dioxide removal, and blood flow to affected areas. A variety of basic methodologies are commonly applied in both the medical and physical therapy disciplines to promote such healing. These include revascularization to areas with interrupted blood flow (via surgical bypass or endovascular therapy), drug therapy, and local warming (via direct heat application or ultrasound) to increase local perfusion and improve oxygen delivery and carbon dioxide removal.
Alternatively, hyperbaric therapy has been utilized for direct delivery of oxygen at the tissue site via a pressurized, oxygenated environment to treat wounds.
Perfluorochemical (PFC) liquids have been utilized to deliver oxygen systemically via the lungs and as an artificial blood substitute. In addition, the anti-inflammatory nature of PFC liquids and vapors when used in cell and in vivo conditions has been demonstrated. In one case a fluorocarbon liquid has been used in a bath environment to partially treat foot ulcers.
Wounds and tissue injuries constitute a very large grouping of medical conditions including ischemic/decubitus ulcers, traumatic injuries, thermal injuries, reconstructive and/or cosmetic procedures of poorly vascularized regions of vascularly compromised patients, and mechanical musculoskeletal injuries, including but not limited to skin, muscle, cartilage, ligament, and tendon injuries. A wide variety of skin disorders including but not limited to psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, skin infections including bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases, and post viral processes such as shingles, can also be included in this group. While it is difficult to quantify all the skin diseases, ulcers, burns, sprains, and other injuries that occur in the population, it is safe to assume that this occurs in many millions of patients in the United States. For example, in a Canadian study, 1.8% of the population was determined to have open or healed ulcers of the lower extremity. Extrapolation of this data results in an estimated 5.3 million such patients in the United States alone, which is likely to be conservative given the considerably higher rate of diabetes and peripheral vascular disease in the United States. Similarly, in an older literature review from 1987, over a million people per year seek medical attention each year in the United States for ankle sprains alone, which is presumably exceedingly conservative given the growth of exercise in the youth and adult population as well as the preponderance of patients who do not seek physician attention for their less significant injuries.
Adding the number of skin diseases, burn injuries, traumatic and other wounds, reconstructive and cosmetic surgical challenges, and tissue injuries yields estimates in the tens of millions of wound and tissue injury patients in the United States alone each year.
There is a continuing need to provide treatment for these diseases, injuries and conditions.